Only for that Day
by Trenchcoatgirl-Kyo
Summary: Sequel to Purity of White. With the Rokudaime Hokage on the horizon, it's time for Team seven to be complete again. Meanwhile, Sasuke is 3 days from his revenge. SasuSaku
1. Chapter 1

**Only For That Day **

_It's been six long years, and things have changed- the Hyuuga have a new head, war has come to an uneasy peace, and there just might be a new Hokage on the horizon. Unfortunately, Naruto swore he wouldn't take on the mantle of Rokudaime until he'd fulfilled his promise of a lifetime to Sakura. Tsunade-sama has decided that the time has come for Sasuke to be brought back to Konoha, with a little unexpected help. So it's off through Sand to get to Snow, to make team seven complete again. Meanwhile, Sasuke is only three days away from Itachi, and with any luck, his revenge. Four people have been waiting… only for that day._

Alright, kiddos, this is the **sequel** to my fanfiction "Purity of White". If you've read POW, welcome back. If not, you can try to read this, but I'm not guaranteeing that you'll understand certain references, or some of the underlying plot, so if you like it, read the first one!

And once again thanks to Kyiri! She is my most lovely and wonderful beta, and I sing her praises pretty much at the beginning of every chapter.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for!

**Chapter 1**

Twenty two year old Uzumaki Naruto was late. To be specific, twenty two year old Uzumaki Naruto was late because his hell-raiser of a son had stolen his alarm clock (together with an electric mixer, a hair dryer, and a very ugly lamp, which he had wired together. When he plugged it in, it cause a blackout for a good two-thirds of Konoha). What exactly he was late for, he wasn't sure. But Tsunade was going to kill him.

When he had finally woken up, forty five minutes late, he'd hurriedly thrown on clothes, kissed his family goodbye, and run like hell.

He opened the door to the Hokage's office to find utter blackness. He sighed and started to feel his way up the stairs. Grabbing the railing, he pulled himself up.

Naruto had made Chunin at fifteen, Jonin at seventeen, married Hinata at eighteen, and was the most likely candidate for Hokage.

In fact, Tsunade and her council had suggested to him that he take up the mantle of the sixth. But Naruto was nothing if not stubborn, and he'd sworn not to take the position until Sasuke was back.

So Naruto, the man who was already being called the sixth, having made his way up the stairs without serious injury and/or death, flailed around in the darkness for the doorknob of the Hokage's office. A small noise caught his attention. Someone was speaking inside.

He didn't recognize the voice, but the tone was familiar…

He slammed the door open and froze. In the semi-darkness of the room, the voice seemed even louder.

"-Not actually medic training, but I learned first aid, so I can stitch people up okay," followed by soft laughter.

Naruto's eyes seized upon the dark blue shirt and the familiar red-and-white symbol.

"Sasuke-teme!" he yelled. The figure turned around, as if in surprise. For a moment his brain emptied of all thoughts except "When did Sasuke learn Oiroke no jutsu?"

"Do I really look that much like him?" she asked. It was then that he realized that this couldn't be Sasuke, because there was no reply of "hn" or "dobe", and further more, Sasuke was not a Hyuuga. And the smiling girl had a shining white eye staring at him. She also carried a huge scroll on her back, like the one Jiraiya wore.

"You're a Hyuuga?" he asked stupidly. Of course she was a-

"No," Tsunade said sharply. He jumped, not having realized that Sakura and the Godaime were also in the room. "You're late," Tsunade added. "And has your son been messing with the electricity again?"

A guilty look passed across his face and then came back and camped there. "Er…" Tsunade stared at him. "He… well, he kinda stole my alarm clock," he admitted.

"At least he didn't pretend to kidnap himself again, ne?" Sakura grinned, referring to an incident two months previous, which had all the Hyuuga out for blood ad had ultimately been resolved when he had turned up asleep under the Hokage's desk.

Naruto groaned, then turned back to the girl. "You aren't a Hyuuga?" he asked, puzzled.

She shook her head and turned to face him, revealing her mismatched eyes. "No. This eye was surgically implanted. I'm blind in it," she replied in cheerfully. "My name's Maya."

"Uchiha Maya," Tsunade added firmly. "Konoha's last Uchiha. Sasuke's niece."

"She's Ita-" Naruto started, but Tsunade cut him off.

"No. She is the daughter of Sasuke's older sister, Yumi," Tsunade said sharply. "She was captured by Itachi on the night of the Uchiha massacre, at age four, and handed over to Orochimaru, who had her left eye cut out and replaced with a Byakugan. At age twelve she was rescued by Hyuuga Neji, brought back to Konoha, cared for by Yamanaka Ino, and a few weeks later was escorted by Neji, Ino and Sakura to the home of a friend of mine. She's been training there for the last six years, returning only last night. She made Chunin at twelve, only six months after becoming a Konoha Genin, and Jonin at the last exam, and though she is to be assigned her first official mission today, she has proven herself to be a highly capable and loyal shinobi of the leaf. Her goal is to become an ambassador and to bring her uncle back to Konoha."

"Why did no one ever tell me about her?" Naruto asked, with a slightly angry undertone.

"Well, the Hyuuga had a death warrant out for me. Didn't like anyone outside the family with the Byakugan," Maya piped up.

"Hai. And if you had known about her, and the Hyuuga found out that you knew about her, it is highly doubtful that you would have married your lovely wife and we would be able to converse with each other with the lights on, though it would probably just be me and Sakura, as Maya would be dead, and you would most likely be dead for protecting her," Tsunade said calmly. "As I assume you would choose to protect her."

"Hinata does seem really nice. She was the one who canceled the death warrant for me," Maya said genuinely.

"So," Naruto asked "Why did you call us all here?"

Tsunade smiled. He was getting quicker on the uptake. "Because. We received a report from Suna. The message it contained was 'Uchiha S. seen crossing the border into Kaze, presumably heading towards Yuki no Kuni, tell N. that G. says he's looking forward to greeting him as a fellow Kage.' "

Naruto's face lit up.

"You leave tomorrow morning for Suna, where you will gather information about Uchiha Sasuke's whereabouts, and then…" She paused for emphasis, "Bring Sasuke back to Konoha"

"YES!" Naruto yelled, jumping up and down.

"So the new, temporary team seven, team NaruSakuMaya leaves tomorrow at nine o' clock sharp" Tsunade grinned, thinking of how many members team seven had come to include. "Now, I believe that Maya needs to be reunited with a happily married couple at the Hyuuga residence.

Maya beamed. Naruto looked confused. "Ino and Neji," Tsunade said, shaking her head.

"YAY!" Maya squealed.

X

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"Otto-san! Otto-san, guess what! No wait, don't, because you'll never ever ever ever ever ever EVER ever guess!"

Naruto gave a half-hearted groan and scooped up the rambunctious three year old. "You didn't blow anything up, did you?"

"Not this time," the boy shook his head vigorously. "I got spanked!" he said in tones that were far from remorseful.

"Why?" Naruto asked warily

"Because I was up on the roof and I kinda broke it but it wasn't really my fault, but anyways, it'll take two weeks to fix the west wing but it'll probably never never be the same ever." His son chattered.

"Oh, is that all? Well, you deserve to be spanked for blacking out Konoha for two hours," Naruto replied. "That was very bad of you, Kyoshi. What were you doing with my alarm clock anyways?"

"I was building a bomb! I went over to Shino-oji-chan's house and plugged it in and then I got this big big jolt and then there was a lot of black smoke, and then it got really dark and then Shino-oji-chan brought me home. He was really mad" Kyoshi replied. Then he looked at Maya. "Otto-san, who's that?"

"She's Maya-san, and don't point. She's here to see Neji-oji-san and Ino-obaa-chan," Naruto said.

"Hi Kyoshi-kun. You've certainly made today interesting," Maya smiled. He beamed back at her with Naruto's trademark smile.

He was short, with blue-tinted Byakugan, and red hair (A/N: This is possible if you have one blonde parent and another with black hair. In series proof? Gaara. Mom was blonde, dad had black hair. So there). His knees were scraped, and his face, which looked exactly like Naruto's minus the whiskers, was dirty. It was like Naruto came in a variety of colors and sizes.

"Much too interesting," someone said from behind them.

"NEJI-NI-CHAN!" Maya screeched and jumped to give him a hug. He moved the plastic grocery bag he was holding out of the way.

"Hello, Maya-chan. I couldn't believe it was you," He replied as soon as she was composed. Not much had changed about him. He still wore something like he had worn at sixteen, and his Hitai-ate still covered up the cursed seal on his forehead. His face looked older and more mature, though.

"Been awhile, huh?" she commented, with an ear to ear grin.

"Since the wedding," Neji replied. "Three years now. Almost four. At least you'll be here to see our second child born."

"NO WAY! You two have a kid!" Maya was excitedly jumping up and down again.

"Yes, out daughter, three years old," he said, clearly proud.

"How far along is Ino?" she asked, still jumping.

"Five months."

Maya stuck her fist up in the air. "Where is she? I can't wait!"

Neji let a small but genuine smile cross his lips "I'll show you. But first you have to meet Hinata."

Ten minutes later, Maya was bowing in front of Hinata in seiza position. "It's very nice to meet you, Hinata-sama"

"It's very nice to meet you as well, Maya-san." Hinata inclined her head slightly. "This is my daughter, Kin'nari-chan. I believe you've met my son, Kyoshi," She added.

Motherhood sure could change a person. Hinata would always be delicate, but now there was strength behind it. She kept her long hair pulled up into an elegant bun, and she wore a kimono with the Hyuuga crest on it.

Kin'nari-chan had the same type of delicacy about her features. Her hair was golden blonde and pulled up in two long pigtails, and she had her mother's lavender Byakugan. She wore a plain white kimono and sat very politely and calmly, something most four-year-olds were not often capable of.

"Kin'nari. That's an unusual name," Maya remarked.

"The 'kin' is for gold, because of her hair, and the 'nari' is short for 'Inari', since she came close to being born in one of his shrines."

"It's a beautiful name. What does Kyoshi mean?"

"Well, 'Kyo' is short for 'Taikyo', sky, or universe, and 'shi' is a traditional ending for a Hyuuga boy's name," Hinata explained. "Now, Neji, I think that Ino is probably pacing a hole in the tatami wondering where you are."

"Hai, Hinata-sama."

"You know, Neji," Naruto grinned "One day we'll get you to stop saying 'Hinata-sama' and just call her 'Hinata'."

"Perhaps," Neji said simply. "Now, Maya-chan, shall we go see Ino?"

"Yep!"

He led her out the door and down a hall until they reached a small wing. "Ino?" Neji tapped on the paper door.

"Neji! Jeez, what took y-" Ino said, opening the door. Then she stopped and screamed.

"MAYA!"

"INO**-**NEE-CHAN!"

"I missed you so much! Now look at you! You're so much taller, and your chest has filled out, and-"

"I missed you too, Onee-chan." Maya hugged her. "So I hear you have a daughter now, and another one on the way. Congratulations!" she grinned. She looked Ino up and down. Ino wore her hair up still, with the trademark bang jutting out, and she wore a light purple kimono. Her bump was already starting to show significantly.

"Neji! You ruined the surprise!" Ino scolded mockingly.

"Yes, but I got you these" he said, handing over the grocery bag. Ino opened the bag to see small tomatoes, then gave him a kiss on the cheek. She turned back to Maya.

"Come in, we have so much to talk about!" Ino led her inside and sat her down at a small table.

"Kaa-san! Is this your friend?" a little girl ran up to them, tugging at Ino's hand. She has very short light blonde hair and Byakugan.

"Inobara-chan, this is your Maya-obaa-san," Ino said, sitting down. Inobara nodded and then ran to her father.

"Inobara? Wild boar rose? And wait, why am I obaa-san?" Maya asked.

"Because, if I'm onee-chan, and Neji is onii-chan, then that makes you obaa-san to our child," Ino replied, pouring tea for her. Maya looked slightly chagrined but accepted it and started to drink politely.

"But what's with her name?" Maya asked again.

"It's the way you thought it was. 'I' is 'boar', 'no' is 'wild', and 'bara' is 'rose' so it means 'wild boar rose' all together" Neji explained, scooping up his daughter, who giggled, and then setting her down at the table.

"It's all Shikamaru's fault. When he found out Temari and I were both expecting at the same time, he insisted on there being another Ino-Shika-Cho. And he got my dad on my case. It was actually surprisingly convenient, because I couldn't choose between 'Nobara' and 'Ayame', so I went with Nobara and just put an 'I' in front of it. Now say hello, Maya-chan."

"Hi, Inobara-chan."

"Hi, Maya-obaa-chan." Inobara grinned.

"Kyoshi hasn't rubbed off on her, has he?" Maya asked nervously, as Inobara dumped spoonful after spoonful of sugar in her tea.

"No," Neji said firmly. Then he picked up Inobara again and threw her up in the air, making her squeal with delight.

"I hope this one looks like him," Ino confided, laying a hand on her stomach. "Being a father has been good for him, and he's good at it."

"Yeah, I've seen him smile three times now," Maya remarked, watching as Neji caught Inobara and then threw her up in the air again.

"Anyways, tell me about your training," Ino requested. Maya groaned.

"I learned a lot from Ashura-sensei, but I hope I never have a worse housemate. He's so incredibly spoiled. And perverted. And so… gah… anyways, he always managed to get a dozen or so pretty boys to serve as shrine maidens, all of whom we annoyingly head-over-heels for him. He had a drinking party almost every night, mostly with people in the bingo book, S-class criminals, those kinds of people. Oh, and every once in awhile, Jiraiya would come over. Gods. They had this little routine down." Maya stopped to massage her temples.

"They would start out on opposite sides of the room. They would say 'Don't you know who we are?' in unison, and then Jiraiya would say 'The title "Frog Hermit" is merely a disguise' and Ashura would say the same thing, except his title was 'Hermit of Feng huang no Yama' and then together 'We shall tell you our true identities' and then they would start hopping across the room, towards one another. 'The man who has no enemies in the north, south, east and west' was Jiraiya's next line and then Ashura would say 'The man who has been known and loved in all directions of the compass' and then together again 'That is me!' and then 'A name to make a crying baby to stop in awe!' and 'A name to make the stars themselves grow dull!' by then, having been hoping through all of this, they'd be standing right next to each other, and they'd say 'Jiraiya of the legendary three!' and 'Ashura, last of the Suzaku clan!' and then together 'The most excellent perverted duo in the east! Between the two of us, there is no pair of legs, male or female that we cannot open!' . There was more, but it isn't exactly child-friendly, and anyways I don't know it as well because that's usually when I threw the iron teapot at them," Maya said. Ino was laughing.

"So what else did you do besides attend drinking parties and throw teapots at your teachers?" Ino asked.

"Well, I studied taijutsu, mostly Jyuuken, the renge style, some of the Suzaku clan's personalized style, and also a fighting style from the west called Shina, and improved my Katon. I can do most Jonin level techniques, now, and I also increased my knowledge of the other styles, since flexibility is really important. I also spent a lot of time studying history, since I may potentially be leading a clan someday. That's why I have this," Maya said, patting the giant scroll.

"What is it? It looks like a summoning scroll," Ino said. Maya nodded.

"Yep. Apparently, when I was sixteen, the contract that Akiko drew up for me so I could keep Akeko was somehow voided, I never really figured out why. So Ashura-sensei told me a place I could go to make a new summoning contract with the Inugami, which I did. So now I'm the carrier of the scroll. That's something else I worked on- it was kinda inspired by the Shina style, which specialized in partner training, so I started creating my own style that keeps the Sharingan in mind, and also that incorporates the Inugami. It has a really strong close- and mid-range, since the Chidori and most Katon techniques hit those ranges, but I'm still working on the long range part. I'm not that good with weapons, and I don't have the most chakra or the best chakra control, so any long range ninjutsu is out of the question," Maya admitted.

"It's still really impressive. And if you're having trouble with weapons, you should talk to Tenten, Neji's old teammate. She can hit a target from, what, something like a hundred feet away with 100 accuracy," Ino said.

"Whoa. I'll definitely talk to her," Maya said. "Oops. Well, I'll talk to her after my mission," She amended.

"What? You have a mission already?" Ino asked, dismayed.

"Yeah, I have to leave tomorrow." Maya shrugged. "It's a super-A class mission. I'll probably be gone for a couple of weeks. I'm probably the only Konoha Shinobi whose first official mission is an A-rank." She smiled.

"How'd you manage to take the Chunin exams? Or the Jonin? Don't you have to have 8 missions for the Chunin exam and 100 to take the Jonin?" Ino asked.

Maya stuck out her tongue "Tsunade-sama pulled some major strings for me. She counted training with Ashura as my requirements and had him test me and send her the results. When she thought my progress was satisfactory, she elevated me to Chunin. When it was time for me to take the Jonin exam, she went and split up and counted everything I'd done with Ashura, ranked those, and submitted me. It was in Mizu this year," she explained.

"So what exactly does this mission consist of?" Ino asked, eyes narrowed.

"Ino," Neji said, putting Inobara into her lap. "You know all A-rank missions are confidential."

Ino sighed in tones that fooled absolutely nobody, except possibly Inobara, and said "Of course, you're right. Gomen, Maya-chan." in a way that implied she was just going to be sneakier to find it out.

"Oh, it's fine. Anyways, I forget, where's a cheap hotel around here?" Maya asked.

Ino's eyebrows furrowed. "You. Are not. Staying. In. A. hotel. You're staying with us, and that is absolutely final."

Maya grinned "Okay, okay, Ino**-**nee-chan,"

"And further more, you're going to watch Inobara and Choko on their play date. I have to go in for my check up." Ino pulled her hair up into a bun and secured it with chopsticks.

"Choko?"

"Choji's daughter. He and his wife adopted a little girl from his clan after her parents died. She and Inobara are friends" Ino explained, handing over Inobara.

"So there is going to be another Ino-Shika-Cho. Who's the Shika?" Maya asked, as Inobara piped up, yelling "Ino-Shika-Cho, unbeatable trio, GO!"

"Shikamaru and Temari's son, Shikazu." Ino replied. "We're friends again, of course. I'm actually grateful. We would have been horrible together, and who knows who would have snagged Neji?"

"They made up after Inobara was born. She thanked him, crying, for breaking up with her," Neji added. Ino shot him an embarrassed glare.

Maya smiled and outwardly ignored the comment, though she was secretly filing it away under "ammunition" for later. "Yep. I love being able to say I hooked you two up."

Ino flicked her in the back of the head, earning an exclamation of "Ita!" from Maya, who then mumbled that she didn't understand how that could hurt so much. "Well, Neji, we better get going," Ino said.

"Alright," Neji replied, helping her to her feet. "Maya, take Inobara to the park two blocks away from here. Choji should be waiting with Choko."

"Hai!" Maya saluted. He rolled his eyes slightly and escorted Ino out the door. Maya looked at Inobara, who grinned. "Well, looks like it's just you and me, Inobara-chan."

"Yep!" Inobara smiled.

"You like dogs?" Maya asked warily.

"Doggies! I love doggies! I want a puppy, but every time I tell Kaa-san that she rolls her eyes and says 'never again' and hey I know who you are, Kaa-san kept a picture of you in her room and I broke the frame once and then after she was through yelling at me we had a long long talk and she told me all about you, cause you're her imoto even if you aren't related and I told Choko-chan about that once and said 'see, look' 'cause she's adopted and gets real sad sometimes cause she misses her real parents, well, not her real parents cause Choji-oji-chan and Kin'akairo-obaa-chan are her real parents now but the ones that die,." Inobara said without pausing for breath.

"Cool," Maya said. Inwardly she was cracking up at the thought Neji's child could chatter so much. "Then I'll show you something neat, okay?" she winked conspiratorially. Inobara grinned.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Maya said, biting her thumb. When the smoke cleared there was a half grown Shiba Inu in the middle of the floor, wagging thumping his tail against the floor.

"Hey, Akeko," She said, rubbing the dog's head. "This is Inobara. She's Ino and Neji's daughter, and you better be nice to her." Akeko barked.

"Puppy!" Inobara exclaimed happily, eyes lighting up. Akeko barked again, much happier this time, and licked her cheek. Inobara burst into giggles.

"C'mon, guys, we've got to get to the park, 'kay?" Maya said. Inobara turned to look at Maya with absolute adoration.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" she asked.

"You'll have to talk to your parents about that, kiddo," Maya responded. Inobara wrinkled her nose but grudgingly accepted this.

They walked out of the door and down the hall, Akeko padding along silently. Maya happened to bump into someone, and when she looked up, she saw a familiar face staring at her extremely rudely.

Oh, right, the last time she'd seen this face was six years ago when Maya had been on the receiving end of an assassination attempt. Hyuuga Hinako glared at her. Ah, it was nice to be recognized. Hinako was carrying a small girl who appeared to be maybe a year older than Inobara. The girl stuck out her tongue at Inobara, who glared back at her fiercely enough to make the veins around her eyes pop. When she pulled a frog face at the retreating backs of the two, Maya didn't scold her, simply pretending not to see.

"Sorry about that. She's been stuck up since she married into the main house," Another Hyuuga, a woman about Kakashi's age, said before greeting Inobara.

"Hi, Haruka-san," Inobara said shyly. The other waved them on and walked past.

They managed to get out of the house before bumping into pretty much the last person she wanted to see. Hiashi didn't even acknowledge them, just glided on gracefully past. It made Maya want to punch him in the face.

X

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_It had been back at Ashura's that she'd learned about her parent's team. It was purely coincidence that Uzuki Yugao had escorted Gekko Takeo, Hayate's little brother, to Ashura's for training, about a year after Maya had started her training._

_The last person Yugao had ever been expecting to greet her was a little girl, much less one who wore her old ANBU squad leader's face._

_"Can I help you? Oh, this must be Ashura-sensei's new student. Hold on, I'll go get him. Please come in," she'd said politely._

_Yugao, believing she was crazy, asked "May I enquire your name? I'm Uzuki Yugao," in a slightly shaky voice. Takeo had noticed but said nothing. _

_And then the girl had replied ,"Maya, of Konoha's Uchiha clan."_

_Yugao's brain briefly stopped functioning. It was not possible. Honestly, though she'd never admitted it, she had always hoped… ever since they'd revealed that the body presumed to be Maya's wasn't hers… but this…_

_"Was… was your mother Uchiha Yumi?" she'd asked._

_And then Maya had dragged Ashura out of his room, interrupting a semi-awkward moment, threw him in a room and pushed Takeo in the room with him, shut the doors securely, and asked evenly "What do you know about my kaa-san?"_

_They'd locked themselves in one of the upstairs rooms to talk. Maya explained what had happened to her. She told Yugao about why she'd been sent to stay at Ashura's, though she left out Ino, Neji and Sakura's names._

_And then it had been Yugao's turn. "I was thirteen when I was assigned my first ANBU mission with your mother's team. It was made up of Yumi, Hatake Kakashi, Gekko Hayate, and myself. She was my best friend. She never questioned my youth, or teased me about it, or acted as if I were just a kid, even though she was three years older than me. She had faith in me. In ANBU, that isn't usual, but she extended her trust to me. She saved my life more than once, and I saved hers, once." Yugao paused to take a steadying breath. "Then, when she was seventeen, her original Genin team was assigned a mission, resulting in the death of one of her teammates, who had been your father's best friend, and the near fatality of your father. I stayed with her in the hospital for a week before he came around. I was there when he proposed to her. Her teacher and I were the first ones to hear that she was pregnant. With you," Yugao said_

_"Teacher?" Maya asked, interested. She'd never asked about her parent's team when they were still alive, and they never talked about it, though Taki had taken her to the memorial for martyred shinobi twice a month or so._

_"Yes. Your parents remained quite close to him even after their team split. Your grandparents, he, and I were the only witnesses at your parents' wedding. They were looking forward to you becoming friends with his daughter. She was four when you were born." Yugao said. "He waited in the hospital with me and your grandparents, the only time I believe the Hyuuga and Uchiha willingly shared space."_

_Maya's blood ran cold. "Who was their teacher?" she asked slowly._

_"Hyuuga Hiashi."_

_Maya froze. Yugao had noticed and remained quiet._

_The man who had issued her death warrant had been her parents' teacher. The one who had been at her parent's wedding, who had been told before anyone else of her existence, the one who had waited in the hospital lobby for news of his students' child had willingly signed away that child's life._

X

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X

Maya exhaled shakily. For some reason, it was much harder to forgive Hiashi in some respects than it was to forgive Itachi. Though in her mind, there was no real forgiving either of them.

"Let's go," she said to Inobara, a bit sharply. Inobara looked up, a little hurt that her new-found idol would speak to her in that tone. Then the little girl stubbornly set her lip. None of this escaped Maya, who then sighed and said, in a kinder voice, "Sorry. I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at someone else. You're a good girl."

Inobara had simply nodded and tugged on Maya's hand, seemingly saying that all was forgiven.

It took fifteen minutes to find the park, as Neji had not specified which direction the park was in. When they finally got there, Inobara started yelling at another little girl. She had big green eyes and brown hair pulled up into pig tails, and, though clearly an Akimichi, wasn't even really chubby, simply soft looking around the edges. Choko ran up to Inobara, and then they sped off towards the playground. Choji followed his daughter to Maya.

"Hi, I'm Maya. I'm babysitting Inobara, since Ino has a doctor's appointment today," Maya explained.

"Akimichi Choji. Nice to meet you. That's Choko, as you've probably guessed by now," he replied.

They watched the two girls play on the monkey bars. "Choko-chan is really cute," Maya said.

"Yes," Choji said proudly. "Thank you."

They made small talk and monitored the girls from a distance. Everything was going okay until Maya saw Inobara throw sand in a little boy's eyes, and then kick him in the shins.

"DON'T EVER TALK ABOUT CHOKO-CHAN LIKE THAT AGAIN! ENEMY OF ALL WOMEN! YOU LITTLE SHIT!" Inobara yelled, delivering another kick, this time to the stomach.

Maya's eyebrows shot up, almost to her hairline. Where had Inobara learned language like that?

"Inobara! What are you doing!" Maya said, yanking the little girl away. Inobara struggled, desperately trying to free herself from her kimono.

"HE CALLED CHOKO FAT!" she yelled, kicking.

Maya looked over at Choko, whose eyes were brimming with tears and felt like giving the little shit a kick too.

The boy's mother rushed over and demanded that Maya get her child under control. Using great effort to resist kicking both the little shit and his mother, Maya simply said that the boy had been insulting and out of line. Which his mother was not happy about. Maya let the woman rant for five minutes, and then she told the woman exactly where she could stick her parenting. Choji then came over and told Maya he'd take care of it, and she bowed out gratefully.

Then she walked Inobara over to the park's water fountain. Maya said "Your dad would kill you if he even suspected you knew that word. Never use it again, understand?" Inobara looked back, stubborn and sulky. Then Maya took a bar of soap out and made Inobara wash her mouth out with it.

By the end of it, Inobara looked like she hated Maya, and her eyes were streaming, though she wasn't making a single sound except for extremely angry breathing. And then Maya had sighed and started to wash her own mouth out with soap. Inobara looked surprised. Maya made ridiculous faces as she did it. God, this was just as awful as she remembered. She'd endured this punishment more than once as a three year old.

When she was done, grimacing, she said "Well, I guess I can't really lecture you, now can I? I said some pretty bad words myself. So tell you what, since you stuck up for your best friend, let's go get some ice cream," Maya said.

By the time they were on their way home from the ice cream shop, Maya was back in Inobara's good books.

"I won't say anything if you don't say anything," Maya told her, before sending her off to play with Kin'nari in the courtyard. She was perfectly well behaved while playing with her cousin, and was down for a nap by the time Ino and Neji got back.

"Was she alright?" Ino asked. Maya nodded, mentally crossing her fingers.

"She was fine."

"Good," Neji said "Anything interesting happen?"

"She was really good, so we got ice cream," Maya said.

"Thanks for doing it, Maya, I know she can be a handful." Ino said. Maya shrugged casually. "Anyways, we need to celebrate your return to Konoha. What do you feel like tonight?"

"Ooh, I'd love okonomiyaki," Maya said wistfully. "I haven't had any good okonomiyaki in years."

"Sure. Sounds fine by me," Ino replied.

"Fine with me," Neji agreed.

"I'll invite Sakura, too, if that's okay," Ino added, tucking the blanket tighter around her daughter.

"Yeah, of course. She's coming on the mission with me tomorrow. " Maya said, shrugging "Does she have a boyfriend or anything?"

Neji snorted and Ino elbowed him sharply. "No. She does not. She never really got over losing Sasuke," She said.

Maya looked thoughtful. "Oh. Well, no wonder…" she trailed off.

Ino's ears perked up, but Maya noticed her listening intently and shut up.

X

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X

"Bye, Ino-nee-chan, bye Neji-nii-chan, bye Inobara-chan!"

"Come back and play with me!"

"Okay, I will."

"Be careful."

"Oh, well, that's a good idea, I thought I'd just run around with my eyes closed, banging off of walls, but your suggestion is much better."

"Oh ha ha, very funny. Be safe."

"Bye!"

"Goodbye!"

"Bye bye!"

"Wait!" Ino exclaimed. Maya turned around. "Are you hurt?" Maya's hand flew to the gauze pad on the small of her back, above her left hip.

"Oh, that? It's nothing, just a bruise, it's fine." Maya waved her hands. Oh _crap_.

"Maya-chan, don't be so stubborn, you can't go on a mission if you're injured! SAKURA! Will you take a look at Maya's wound?" Ino placed her hands firmly on her hips and glowered.

"NO! I can't possibly express how fine I am!" Maya said, jumping off the porch. Sakura caught her by the collar of her shirt and dragged her back up into a private room, while lecturing Maya about the immaturities of not tending to one's body properly, especially before missions.

They came out thirty seconds later, Sakura laughing hysterically and Maya wearing a sulky expression. Across the courtyard, where Naruto was kissing his family goodbye, he caught sight of Maya's face and remembered the exact same expression planting itself on her uncle's face, back in wave country, when he'd asked "What did Sakura tell you?"

"There's nothing I can do," Sakura said, giggling.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, NOTHING YOU CAN DO? YOU, THE TOP MEDIC NIN OF KONOHAGAKURE NO SATO CAN'T FIX A BRUISE?" Ino asked, voice raised.

"It's permanent" Sakura said, before lapsing into giggles.

"What?" Now Ino looked confused.

"Gods, Maya, why would you-?" Sakura asked, though still laughing.

"It's cool" Maya muttered sullenly.

"Why can't you fix it?" Ino asked, brow furrowed. Neji wore a similar expression.

"Because, there's nothing to fix," he said, and then asked Maya sharply, "Did you at least get it in a clean place, where they sterilized their tools?"

"Of course I did. I'm not stupid," Maya replied. Neji restrained the urge to roll his eyes.

"What are you-?" Ino asked, and then stopped, as if suddenly understanding the situation. She walked over to Maya, turned her around, and ripped off the gauze pad to reveal-

"A tattoo?" Ino wailed. "Maya-chan, a tattoo?"

Maya looked down guiltily. Her hip was bedecked with a very strange, yin-yang design. The side that should have been black was red, with a black dot in the middle, surrounded by three tomoe (the little Sharingan commas). The white side was outlined in lavender, and the dot was also white outlined with lavender. "It's my personal crest" she murmured.

Ino opened her mouth and then shut it, opened it and then shut it again. Then she finally managed to say "It's nice"

Inobara looked at it, awed. "YAY! Looks cool! I want one!"

"NO," Ino and Neji said firmly.

"AlrightthenI'mgonnagobye!" Maya rushed, making her escape.

"Oh, Neji, she got a tattoo…" Ino moaned.

"She'll be fine," he reassured her, planting a kiss on her forehead and then watching as Sakura, Naruto, and Maya left together.

"She'll be fine," Neji repeated.

"She better be," Ino said. "She's in _sooo_ much trouble. I was hoping no one would put the idea of tattoos in Inobara's head. At least not for years and years." Ino scooped her daughter up and kissed her on the forehead.

"No tattoos," She said decisively. Inobara looked crestfallen.

X

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Wow! It's the first chapter! I'm all eager-like. This is super exciting for me… I didn't expect Purity of White to be that popular, and now I'm on the sequel… I'm really happy about that.

Okay, so I referenced a couple of my favorite fanfictions in here too. They were:

Two Halves by Dame Wren and

Lacking Sight by Lifethane

Both extremely awesome HinaNaru fics. Anyways, the Shina style is from Two Halves, and Haruka is from Lacking Sight.

As Dame Wren is out of the country and not receiving Email or PMs about Two Halves, I don't directly have her permission to mention Shina. But she did say that it was okay to use bits and pieces of her work (as long as she was given credit) in her author's notes for Two Halves.

And as for Haruka she's Lifethane's Original Character, and Lifethane was way awesome and sent me a couple of very nice messages discussing Haruka and our respective stories. So major thanks to him.

I don't intend to copy their works or anything. This was simply my way of expressing my respect for them and their stories, and to let people know about their fictions. This is meant to complement them. So check out their stories!

And also, please review!


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2 **_

Showers. Showers were nice. Really nice. Sakura sighed as she rinsed the dust out of her hair. They'd entered Kaze the day before, and in a few hours they were meeting a guide who would take them to Suna.

But that was beside the point. Because she was in the shower and smelled nice and would be catching some sleep on a bed instead of in a sleeping bag and didn't have to wear her hair covered so as not to attract attention (pink hair was something of a rarity). She exhaled happily.

Then she started to think about her mission. Lots of people said she was foolish to keep chasing after Sasuke. And she'd certainly broken her fair share of hearts. Poor Lee. But she knew herself, and she knew that she could never give up on Sasuke. Loving him was something that would always be a part of her now. And she wasn't going to give up. At least she was strong enough to pummel some sense into him.

She got out of the shower and turned the water off. Wrapping her hair up in the towels embroidered with the hotel's crest, she went into the bedroom.

Maya was sprawled across the twin bed on the left, sleeping. Sakura ghosted across the room to grab some clothes to change into, then went back into the bathroom. She tied her Hitai-ate around her forehead with some satisfaction. She was facing Sasuke as a shinobi, a Kunoichi of the leaf. And he should know exactly what he was up against if he was going to make her beat him all the way back to Konoha.

Sakura went back into the other room. Maya whimpered "Kimi-". Sakura cocked her head, concerned. She walked over to where Maya was sleeping, and put a hand on her forehead. She wasn't feverish, but her cheeks were wet…

Maya shifted, and Sakura withdrew her hand.

X

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_"Hello," he said softly, recognizing her footsteps and the scent of narcissus. She always brought him flowers. He heard her place them on a table alongside his cot, and sniffle._

_"Hi, Kimimaro-kun. I brought narcissus again today," Maya replied._

_"Yes. I can smell them."_

_"Are you doing any better today?"_

_"No. Not really."_

_"Oh. I thought Kabuto was trying another cure."_

_"He tried. It's not working."_

_"I'm sorry."_

_"I didn't expect it to anyways."_

_"I know. I didn't really expect it to either," but oh how she'd hoped._

_Kabuto walked into the room again. "Hello Maya-hime. You should let Kimimaro get his rest."_

_"Hai." she said quietly, slipping from the room._

_"You really shouldn't encourage her," Kabuto said to Kimimaro. Kimimaro heard him pick up the narcissus and throw it away._

_"It doesn't matter anymore," Kimimaro replied. "I was not called again. Kabuto-sensei. I am…"_

_"Your job is to take care of your body. Your duties are already over. Kimimaro... you are no longer one of the sound five," Kabuto said harshly. _

_"I still-"_

_Kabuto cut him off. "We have already found your successor. Also he possesses a seal with equal power to your earth seal... which is the heaven seal. Not only that, he's got a bloodline limit."_

_Kimimaro was silent._

_Continuing, Kabuto chuckled. "... Heh heh... I wonder who is stronger, you or him?"_

_Kimimaro twitched in response. One of the many machines linked to his vitals beeped. Kabuto turned to look at him "What's wrong? Don't excite yourself too much..."_

_"Ugh... ugh.." Blood dripped out of the corner of his mouth "... How much longer do I have?" he asked again._

_"You shouldn't talk anymore." _

_"... I've realized recently... that everyone is given life for a reason. Everyone has something important to accomplish," Kimimaro said, despite Kabuto's warning. "The quest to discover what that is... is the only freedom God has given us humans."_

_"I understand what you want to say. Orochimaru-sama is certainly in great pain, and it is a critical situation like never before. However, I must say this firmly. What can you do as of now? You've lost your purpose as a 'container'," Kabuto said. Kimimaro didn't reply. "Right now, we have a new container on the way to the village." Kabuto began to watch a TV screen, hooked up to a camera in the room where Ginyamaru was unknowingly fighting to become Orochimaru's new body. "Well, that in itself is late as well."_

_After Kimimaro heard the scream of Ginyamaru being swallowed by the snake, he spoke again "...I must agree... I no longer have the capacity for the metampsychosis... in fact, it is quite difficult to discover my purpose now that I've lost everything. However, I finally understand."_

_Kabuto gave him a questioning look._

_"Although he may not be me, I will bring in the new 'container' here... Even if it costs me my very life. This is how I show my thanks to Orochimaru-sama and my way of repaying my uselessness," Kimimaro finished, sitting up._

_He walked out the door, and then paused. Maya was leaned up against the wall, asleep. He looked at her for a long time, as if recognizing her devotion for him for the first time._

You mean more to me than you think…

_"But not enough to stay by your side. Sayanora, Maya-hime."_

X

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"Maya?"

She opened her eyes to see Sakura staring at her, concerned. Maya jerked away, touching her cheek. She'd been crying? Then she remembered her dream.

Great. She'd moved onto dreaming about Kimimaro now, instead of Akiko. Sakura put her hand on Maya's shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Maya snapped, wrenching away.

"You seemed like you were having a bad dream," Sakura said.

"Well, I'm fine now. Just leave me alone for awhile," Maya replied.

Sakura turned away from her. Maya felt her stomach sink. Yeah, she'd been annoying, but Sakura was only trying to help. Maya felt her eyes brim over. Damnit. Damnit damnit damnit all to hell. Just what she needed. A dream about someone she loved who she was never, never, never going to get back, no matter how much she wished. A dream about someone who would have died anyways. A dream about someone who didn't love her.

And she looked at Sakura and saw herself. Someone who kept waiting, who would always keep waiting.

As Maya kept staring at Sakura, feeling more and more anger and self pity feeding into her. And she didn't even realize when she started to speak "Why did you even come on this mission? Was it to prove to Sasuke that while all his other groupies grew up and got a life that you were still waiting? That even after the last of them was married, that you would wait forever?" Maya wanted to stop, but she kept on talking. "Did he ever even like you? I bet he thought you were annoying. Why didn't you just get over him, and give up on him!" Maya was yelling by that point.

And every word lodged itself in Sakura's heart. It hurt, it really hurt to hear Maya say all the things out loud that everyone in the village had been saying for years, whispering behind her back. But Sakura had hurt before. You had to hurt before you could heal. So Sakura drew herself up a little taller.

And Maya wasn't spiteful or deliberately malevolent. She was scared and lonely as hell and jealous and angry that some random girl knew Sasuke better than she did. In a lot of ways, they mirrored each other. Sakura had certainly experienced her share of the same feelings when she first met Maya.

So she spoke firmly and said "Maya, I love Sasuke. And that love is real, even if it's been stomped on and rejected and broken into a million little pieces over and over again. If it wasn't, why the hell would I be here? I'm who I am because of what I went through for and because of him. I'm not going to go away. He's a part of team 7 and he always will be."

Maya looked mortified. "Sumimasen," she said, and then she went out onto balcony and slammed the door.

She sat out on the balcony sobbing for what felt like hours. It didn't matter that Naruto could probably hear her, and that Sakura definitely could. Being a shinobi who never shed a tear didn't matter anymore. Being Maya of Konoha's Uchiha clan, who never showed their emotions, didn't matter anymore.

She stayed huddled up on the balcony until Sakura left the room to go down to the lobby to meet their guide, and then Maya went downstairs as well.

X

X

X

"No. I'm busy. Go away," Gaara said resolutely. His niece and nephew looked up at him with pleading eyes.

"Please, please, PLEASE, Gaara-oji-chan!" Shikamari begged. She was Temari and Shikamaru's six year old daughter, and her name came from Temari's statement that she'd be damned, twice damned, and possibly even trice damned if her husband thought he was going to burden their child with his name. Eventually, they had compromised.

"No," Gaara replied firmly.

"Well, when you're old and decrepit and smell bad, I'm not gonna let you live with me," Shikazu threatened. Gaara's eyes narrowed.

"I'm not going to get old. Now leave or I'll feed you to the old man who lives in the sewers," Gaara replied.

"Okaa-san says you lie to us about the old man who lives in the sewer to get us to leave you alone," Shikamari said.

"Shut up," he snapped.

The siblings were quiet for a moment, and the only sound was the scratching of Gaara's pen. Then-

"_Please?_" Shikamari asked. Gaara looked up, unable to stop himself. That's when she suckered him with charm.

"Fine," not an inch of Gaara's posture conceded his defeat "But if I do, will you promise to leave me alone?"

"YES! Promise! We'll go play with Kuro-oji-tan," Shikamari exclaimed.

"Okay, promise," Shikazu shrugged.

"Good," Gaara said. He uncorked his gourd with one hand while clearing off the desk with his other. Sand flowed freely until it covered the surface of his desk.

"Alright, this story starts out when I was twelve, as was your father, Kankuro was fourteen, and your mother was fifteen." Gaara said. Out of the sand rose tiny figures of Shikamaru, Temari, Kankuro and himself. Shikamaru was over on the right side of his desk, and the sand siblings on the left. There were also several other anonymous sand ninja on either side with simple smiles, and one that was supposed to be the Daimyo.

"The old Daimyo was limiting Suna's power and the number of shinobi, and beginning to take missions to Konoha when he should have been sending those missions to Suna." The Daimyo pointed at the "Suna" ninjas, whose smiles turned into frowns as they melted back into sand. "It was about the time of the chuunin exams," he continued. "The exams were taking place in Konoha, so we went," the three quartzite siblings walked across the desk to where Shikamaru was standing.

"The first exam was a written exam, a test of our information gathering skills and nerve," The Daimyo and other Suna and Konoha ninja dissolved into sand, leaving Shikamaru and the sand siblings still standing. Then desks formed out of the sand, as well as other ninja, many of them with familiar faces. All the shinobi sat down at desks.

"All of those who were clumsy or cowardly were eliminated." Many vanished. Gaara briefly reenacted Naruto's statement, at which Shikamari and Shikazu giggled. "Those of us who passed were taken by the second proctor to the Shi no Mori," a sand Anko formed and then jumped up on a desk, miming shouting, as Ibiki in miniature shook his head. Then Anko jumped off the desk, which, along with all the other desks and the other proctors, vanished. She escorted the shinobi back across the desk, where Sand rose up to become trees, with a tower in the middle.

"Our task was to collect two scrolls, one of which we were provided with, the other which we had to secure for ourselves. Then we had to make it to the tower in the center. Seven teams made it." The other ninja and the trees all vanished to make room for the matches. "One ninja opted to forfeit," Kabuto disappeared. Gaara made the sand ninja act out the fights.

"In the end, there were nine finalists. Me, Kankuro, your parents, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Neji and a sound ninja, Dosu Kinuta," Gaara continued. "We trained for a month," the ninja lifted barbells and stretched.

"By the time Uzumaki Naruto arrived, a few minutes late, neither the sound ninja nor Uchiha Sasuke had come. He had the first match." Gaara then demonstrated what happened in it. "He won."

"The second match was supposed to be me against Uchiha Sasuke, but as Uchiha hadn't arrived by that time, the match was postponed. The third match was between Kankuro and Aburame Shino. Kankuro resigned." Sand Shino glared at Sand Kankuro.

"Your father and your mother faced each other in the third match. It was a truly impressive mach, and it ultimately ended with your father resigning. I believe that's when your mother fell for him," a tiny heart floated above Temari's head.

"My match was the one that almost caused a war between Konoha and Suna. That's another story," Gaara said, trying to avoid the subjects of war with Konoha and Uchiha Sasuke. He dissolved everything on the desk except for Shikamaru and Temari.

"Your mother proved herself to your father after the negotiations between Suna and Konoha, when she saved his life. She remained in Konoha afterwards more or less constantly, serving as the ambassador to Konoha. When your father was sixteen and your mother was nineteen, they admitted their feelings to each other." Sand Shikamaru and Temari kissed as a big heart floated above both their heads. "They were married and had Shikamari five months later. Sand Shikamari sprang up between her parents. "And then, three years later, Shikazu was born. End of story." Shikazu appeared as well.

"Gaara-oji-chan?" Shikamari asked.

"Yes?"

"Well, I was talking to… I don't know… somebody. I don't remember who." she paused for a second, thinking "Well, anyways, somebody, and they said babies are born after nine months. Why was I born after only five?"

"Who did you say told you this?" Gaara asked with a slightly homicidal undertone.

"Don't remember." Shikamari shrugged.

"Just tell them that you were always very precocious." Gaara sighed, the sand flowing from his desk back into the gourd. "Now go away, I have to work," he picked up his paperwork again.

He'd worked for only ten more minutes when there was a knock at the door.

"I'm not here. Go away," Gaara replied.

"Gaara-oji-chan, Kuro-oji-tan wasn't there." Gaara resisted the urge to smack himself in the forehead. He'd sent Kankuro to escort Naruto and his team to Suna.

"Can't you torment your parents?"

"They're in a meeting," Shikazu replied from the other side of the door.

"And what about Haruko or Nana?" he asked, naming their longtime caretakers.

"Haruharu-chan is in Konoha, and Nana-chan is at one of her classes," Shikamari said.

"In that case, you can come in. But only if you promise to be quiet and not to bother me."

"Hai," they chorused. Brother and sister went to go sit down. They were quiet for a few minutes. Then Shikamari piped up.

"Gaara-oji-chan, when we're shinobi, what are we going to wear on our headbands?"

"That counts as bothering me," Gaara replied without looking up from his paperwork "I'm going to answer three questions, and three questions only. This counts as one." Shikamari nodded. "You will wear the symbol of whatever village's academy you graduate from."

"Which academy will I go to?"

"You only have one question left now." Gaara said sternly. "As you're going to be going into the academy this year, and your family is stationed in Suna. Shikazu, on the other hand, will attend the Konoha academy."

There was silence, a long, quiet pause. Gaara stamped his paper. He began to grow suspicious of the silence. There was time to fill out and stamp three more forms before-

"Gaara-oji-chan?"

"Last question."

"Gaara-oji-chan, what does precocious mean?" she asked. Gaara handed her a dictionary.

"Domo," Shikamari said.

"Remember, that was your last question" Gaara cautioned. Shikamari was too busy riffling through pages to answer. She found "precocious" and read, looking serious. Then she began to skim through, finding words to ask about later.

"Gaara-oji-chan?"

"I've already answered three questions"

"Have not!"

Gaara looked up. "EXCUSE ME?"

"You haven't answered three questions. You only answered two. Handing a dictionary to me isn't really answering me. You didn't tell me what precocious means, so you have to answer another question."

There were some days when he really hated loopholes.

"Yes?" he sighed.

"When do I get a fan?"

"You already have a fan. You asked for one for your birthday, which you received."

"No, a _real_ fan."

"You _have_ a real fan."

"No, it's wood and cloth."

"It was also expensive."

"WHEN DO I GET A REAL FAN?" she demanded, stomping her foot.

"YOU HAVE A REAL FAN!"

"NO! I want one like Okaa-san's!" she pouted.

Oh. No. Oh gods no. She had been born with enough weapons- charm, loquaciousness, a will of iron, intelligence to rival her parents', sneakiness- and no one would be putting a giant metal fan with enough power to level a forest in her hands. NO ONE. Or at least no one who would live to tell about it.

He went with a more neutral answer and said instead "When you get to the academy, you'll receive weapons training." When she was in the academy, she wouldn't be his problem anymore while her parents were off meeting with the ambassador to Iwa. She would be someone else's problem.

And that's where his train of thought was violently derailed by Shikazu tipping over the bookshelf.

"I have a C class mission for whatever poor, godforsaken genin team you come across first," Gaara said through gritted teeth to Baki.

Baki eyed the deceptively innocent looking siblings "Demo, Godaime-sama, all the genin teams are in charge of helping to prepare for the meeting with the ambassador from Yuki no Kuni."

"And where is the lady ambassador now?" Gaara asked patiently.

"I believe she's in her usual apartments," Baki replied warily.

"If she's still got the hots for Kankuro, she can watch his niece and nephew for an afternoon."

"Demo, Godaime-sama, she'll kill them!"

"Oh, I would love to see her try," Gaara said wryly.

X

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X

"Okaa-san, Okaa-san, guess what? We got to play with Koko-baa-chan!" Shikamari said.

"DON'T CALL ME BAA-CHAN! I'M NOT OLD!" a harried screech came from the stairwell.

Temari raised her eyebrows "So I heard. You didn't break anything this time?" their mother asked.

"No." Shikazu shrugged.

"Not today!" Shikamari exclaimed happily.

"That's good" Temari said, picking up her children.

It was amazing how much better they behaved around her. They were always calm and serene. A casual observer might even go so far as to say "What delightful children!"

Oh, if only they knew.

X

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X

Both women were completely silent, Naruto noticed. Neither of them said anything. Especially to each other. If they had to, they used only the minimum of words possible.

Girls, Naruto decided, were just bizarre. You'd think that he'd learn something after four years of marriage.

With any luck, at the end of this mission, maybe only a week or two from now, they'd be back in Konoha, with Sasuke in tow, and then he could become Hokage. Officially. A lot of things had changed from the days of painting all over the stone faces. As his generation, who didn't remember the demon fox or know the secret, had been put in charge of running the village, gradually but surely, he'd become more accepted. He wasn't Naruto-no-baka now, he was Naruto, the soon-to-be Rokudaime Hokage.

"Oi, Naruto, we're heading out now," Maya said. He'd spaced and was still sitting on the dune where they'd eaten their meager meal of soldier pills, while the rest of the group was on their feet.

"Oh, right. Sorry." Naruto shrugged.

"S'alright." Maya grinned.

How family could be so different was beyond him.

X

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X

Snow. He hated snow. He especially hated the snow that was falling right now. Well, falling was the wrong word. The snow was being driven into his face by the wind. It was flying sideways right at him, gritty and irritating and cold. Really cold. His eyelashes were freezing over.

So here he was, hounded from place to god awful place, searching for an older brother who may very well might be dead.

No. Itachi couldn't be dead. No way was he dead, not before Sasuke had his revenge. He'd found out that after Akatsuki had been disbanded, with half its members dead and the other half scattered, that Itachi had survived, and was running. No one knew where to.

He suddenly saw a warm yellow light in the midst of the white snow and the black sky. A village! He began to stumble more quickly through the snow. Above the roar of the storm, he could just barely make out the tune of a Shumisen.

He staggered to the corner of the nearest building, presumably a teahouse, and felt his way to the sliding door. He slammed the door open and nearly tripped over the doorway. Shutting the door behind him, he began to slide the shoes off his near-frozen feet. "Hello?" he called, seeing as no one was in the entry way.

A girl, maybe twenty five or a bit older, slid open a door. "Hello, sir." She smiled at him. Her eyes were deep red, and her long hair was blue almost to the point of being black. She wore no face powder, but her skin was pale and smooth. And her lips were painted the same color as her eyes.

"Welcome, weary traveler. Do you wish for a night's stay or two hours rest?" the girl smiled vapidly.

Oh. OH. Not a teahouse then. Sasuke brushed snow off his shoulders "Two hours rest," he replied nonchalantly.

"As you wish, but I doubt the blizzard will be over by then," the girl said, looking down in a fashion she must have thought was alluring.

"When should it blow over, then?" Sasuke asked, slightly impatient.

"I would guess one in the morning, but it will be nearly another hour before the snow will allow movement. If you try to walk on new fallen snow, you flounder on the soft surface. You have to wait for a crust to form. Even though it requires patience, it makes for faster going once you do start out," she said.

"Fine. I suppose I'll stay the night," Sasuke said.

"Very good sir. We have an empty room for you to stay in this way," she said. He followed her down the hall to where she indicated, and walked inside the room as she opened the door for him.

"I will send for someone to give you company. Usually you would be allowed your pick of girls, but tonight there are many men who got stuck in the blizzard. There are also more than a few angry wives, I would think," The woman explained patiently. Sasuke shrugged. "Please make yourself comfortable."

He took off his cloak and the sweater he wore under it, and hung them to dry over the brazier in the corner of the room. Than he sat down to warm himself.

"Hello, sir, my name is Shiroko, a tenjin." A fifteen year old girl said, having opened the door. Her face and hairstyle were slightly different from the hostess's, but not by much, and she shared the same coloring. There was another girl behind her, who introduced herself as "Yukimi, a kakoi", perhaps three or four years younger than Shiroko, and practically identical except that she was carrying a tray of warm sake.

As Yukimi poured out the sake, Sasuke thought, _Damn, how long has it been since this village has seen fresh blood?_

Apparently it had been at least a few generations. He found himself playing drinking game after drinking game with Shiroko and Yukimi, who, though they were very pretty, were not very bright.

It was in the middle of the sixth drinking game that the door slid open again.

"Yuki-tayu!" Shiroko and Yukimi both gasped.

"Hello, sir. I am Yuki," The woman said. She was wearing an exquisite light blue silk kimono, with dark blue butterflies frozen across it. The sleeves were hemmed with white and red ribbons. Her face was a perfect oval with a tapering chin. Her red eyes glowed faintly.

"Yukimi, go fetch us more sake. And Shiroko, your Daisuke-san is waiting for you," Yuki said. Shiroko flushed, and then both women left the room. Then she sat across from Sasuke at the small table in the center of the room.

"Why have you come to Yuki no Kuni?" Yuki asked frankly.

"For revenge. I'm going to kill my brother." Damn. The sake was loosening his tongue.

Yuki frowned. "There was a man who came here often, my patron. He often spoke of his brother. Apparently he was the only one left of his family. This place is not good for brothers… I do wonder if Itachi-dono is alright"

Sasuke broke the cup he was holding. "Oh, more importantly, are YOU alright?" Yuki asked. She took his hand and examined it "It's not cut, that's good," she said.

"In any case, Itachi-dono was going to Her mountain… I dare say I'll never see him again." Yuki feigned a sigh. Sasuke never even suspected that he was being manipulated.

"What mountain?" he asked.

"There is a mountain… sixty kilometers from here. The mountain is where the Snow Queen lives. She's called Lady of the Ice Gardens, Mistress of the Snow Bees, the Goddess of the Mountains to the West, and many other names. She once had two daughters, and they were stolen from Her by two dark haired brothers. Ever since then, She has no love for men, especially brothers. So if Itachi-dono has made there, he is most certainly dead. If not, he is simply walking the path to death," Yuki said.

"It's just a fairy tale," Sasuke said harshly.

"No. The brothers actually founded this town, six generations ago, a little over a hundred years past. Everyone in this town has the blood of those two brothers and their kidnapped snow maiden brides. We of the village keep very precise records. Shiroko, for example, is the direct descendant of the younger brother, and Yukimi is the five times great niece of both couples."

"And what about you?" he asked.

"I? I'm from the capital. I used to be a geisha… I'm the only one of real class in this establishment… however, this is the only place for me. I founded this house, after all. And the people here are all such backwards bumpkins that I had no choice but to combine the teahouse, brothel, and Okiya (house where geisha live). There is no other teahouse in this entire village, only a few shabby stalls selling food and a Izakaya (like a bar that also serves cheap food). And these fools don't know the difference between true geisha and whores. So I really had no other options… I should have known that these daughters of merchants would never measure up to true 'people of the arts'…" Yuki trailed off.

Sasuke was getting angry, she could tell. Oh, really, he wasn't any fun. It was so easy to read him. Right now he was getting fed up with her history lesson. He didn't buy a single word of her tale about the Snow Queen. He visibly twitched every time she said Itachi's name… oh, this was rich. Every single move fitting perfectly with her plan… oh, you'll scoff now, Sasuke-dono, but you'll see.

"What about this 'Itachi-dono?'" Sasuke asked, shaking. Good. He didn't have enough information yet. "Where is the mountain? When was the last time you saw him?" he said.

"Oh, Itachi-dono… he's been my patron for nine years now…. Such a long time, it makes me feel old. In any case, he was heading north, towards the mountains. It was three days ago," Yuki said.

Sasuke slumped. Fuck. Fuckshitfuck. He was only three days behind Itachi, he knew where Itachi was going, and he was stuck listening to some old geisha ramble about mythology. The blizzard wouldn't be over for hours yet. Yukimi returned with more sake, and then left. Yuki poured cupful after cupful of sake for him.

It wasn't half an hour later that he collapsed on the futon, reasoning that he might as well try to sleep through the blizzard. He fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Yuki smiled and tucked him in lovingly.

"Yuki-tayu?" Yukimi said hesitantly. "I'm sorry to bother you about this, but the Himemiya's people have been asking about her disappearance. It's already been three days, and no one has seen her or heard from her. And she was last seen headed here"

"Well, if they inquire again, tell them that they'll likely find her in the spring. She never made it here," Yuki said simply.

"Hai. Of course. I'll stick to the story. I simply wanted to let you know," Yukimi said dutifully. "But between you and me…" she paused. "As your namesake, and the one you are training to become a geisha, as your little sister who is loyal to you…tell me, did you kill her?" Yukimi asked curiously.

"Of course I killed her. Haven't you noticed my hem? She slit her throat… a woman's death. She didn't deserve it, but I do feel some loyalty," Yuki said coolly. "She annoyed me endlessly… a mere gnat. They will never find her. Her body has been disposed of."

"Of course, Yuki-tayu… you think of everything," Yukimi said. "A pity… she would have liked Sasuke-dono, ne?"

"Hai. She would have," Yuki said simply. "Now come here, pet, let the boy be." The two of them left.

In his sleep, Sasuke muttered something intelligible.

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"Well, here we are! Welcome to Suna!" Kankuro grinned. The wind had stopped blowing, and the group could finally see Suna.

"WOW!" Maya exclaimed. It was her first time in Kaze and she was enjoying it immensely.

"We set up places for you to stay, in the Kazekage's tower," Kankuro said, motioning.

"Alright! Lead the way" Naruto grinned. Kankuro led the way through town. They were walking through an alley when they heard a drawling voice say "Oi. What are you troublesome people doing here?"

"Shikamaru!" Naruto turned around, ear-to-ear grin in place.

"We're on our way to see Gaara," Kankuro said.

"So how is Temari-chan?" Sakura asked.

"She's fine, of course. She has the constitution of an ox. Troublesome woman," Shikamaru complained amicably.

"And now you have a troublesome family too, right?" Sakura asked.

"Yep. Speaking of which, when are you gonna bag yourself a man?" Shikamaru asked, clearly unaware that he was on very thin ice.

"Oi, Shikamaru, you ever see Tsunade-obaa-chan right after a meeting with someone she really detested? So angry that even I knew to keep out of her way?"

Shikamaru nodded.

"And you remember that time she was so pissed with the Hyuugas, right before my wedding, that on the way out she punched the wall near the entrance and made a new doorway?"

Another nod.

"And how we had to get her from her own personal training ground?"

A third nod.

"And how she'd reduced it to dust?"

Shikamaru had figured out where this was going.

"Yeah…"

"Sakura-chan is way stronger than her" Naruto finished cheerfully. Shikamaru, eager to change the subject, looked around until he saw Maya.

"You brought your sister-in-law? What for?" he asked.

Maya smiled "Actually, I'm not Hanabi-chan. I'm Maya. The Uchiha clan's Uchiha Maya. Prospective ambassador." She said "Nice to meet you… Shikamaru, right?" and bowed.

"Nara Shikamaru. Ambassador to Suna. Nice to meet you as well, Maya-san," Shikamaru replied, amused. "I've got your file somewhere, Tsunade-sama sent it to me last week. Why do you want to be an ambassador?"

She grinned. "Shikamaru, as I'm sure you read in my file, I lived in Oto for almost half my life. Konoha will always be my home, but I think it's a worthy goal to try to unite my homeland with others."

Shikamaru raised his eyebrows but said nothing. "I'll walk with you troublesome guys to go check in," he said simply.

He looked much the same as he always had. He wore the normal chuunin vest (he could have tested to become a jonin years ago, but wrote it off as too troublesome), and his Hitai-ate still rested comfortably on his upper arm. He had a bit of a scraggly beard, but it looked more like he just hadn't shaved for awhile.

The five made their way to the center of the village. No one really spared them a glance, though there was the occasional eye-flick to their Hitai-ate, and, oddly enough, quite a few glares thrown in Shikamaru's direction. He shrugged them off and offered no explanation.

Once they reached the tower, they were ushered into a waiting room by a deceivingly helpful-looking chuunin saying "Gaara will be with you soon," Thirty minutes later, the same chuunin took them to see the Kazekage.

Gaara stood up to greet them, but in the two seconds where his mouth was open but before he had time to say a single word, the door flew open.

"NARA SHIKAMARU, I am going to KILL you!" Temari said, stomping across the room so her husband could see every pore in her outraged face.

"How dare you. How dare you. HOW DARE YOU SKIP THAT MEETING! How dare you leave me there, waiting like an idiot for you to come back from the bathroom, making EXCUSES for you! If we go to war with Iwa, it is entirely YOUR fault," She yelled, waving her arms wildly. Then, without skipping a beat, she noticed her siblings, Naruto, Sakura, and Maya, who were all trying but failing to look like they hadn't heard every word.

"Oh, _Hi! _How was your journey? That sounds great. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to break my husband's arms now."

"She's kidding, right?" Maya asked, breaking the ban on speaking between herself and her pink haired teammate.

"No. She's not. I'm here, so she's serious," Sakura whispered in reply. Maya looked scared.

But Shikamaru's arms were saved by the bell, or, as it were, by the door slamming open again.

"The next person who slams the door buys me a new one," Gaara said dangerously.

A woman holding Shikazu and Shikamari under either arm said. "Gomen ne, Gaara, but I'm needed. I'm looking for Tem- oh. Temari-chan, your genin team had to be taken to the hospital. Here are your kids. And now I really have to go," the woman said, putting down the children.

"Ja'ne then, Nana-chan," Temari said cheerfully. The woman nodded and then started sprinting away.

"Okaa-san! Otto-san!" the kids chorused happily. Temari rolled her eyes discretely and picked up her son.

Shikazu walked with his father's slump, despite being only three years old. He looked a lot like Kankuro, with short, spiky black hair. His eyes were slightly slanted, like his mother's side of the family, and he also had the pale skin of his maternal lineage.

Shikamari was blonde, like her mother, with the same slanted eyes as her brother, though hers were bright green. She looked a lot like Temari except that she wore her hair up in pigtails. She was already tall for her age.

"Okaa-san, Miki-chan broke her foot," Shikamari informed her mother.

"Would you take a look at her later, please Sakura?" Temari asked.

"Sure, I'll go right now," Sakura said. She inclined her head to Gaara. "Kazekage-sama," and then headed out the door.

Gaara put a hand to his forehead "Alright, then. Hello. Welcome to Suna," He said "Naruto, it's good to see you again. How's your family?"

"Well, Kyoshi hasn't started a war yet." Naruto grinned. "Though not for a lack of trying."

A small smile crossed Gaara's face "Yes… I heard about the 'incident' with the ambassador form Kusagakure. It would seem that Nana has a talent for delivering troublemakers"

Maya looked confused, so Temari said, "Nana is the woman who just came in. She watches my kids, sometimes, but she's also the midwife who delivered them, as well as Naruto and Hinata's kids."

"Oh. Thanks." Maya smiled. Temari rolled her eyes and pushed the younger girl forward.

"Introduce yourself!"

"Right! Sorry," Maya gave a deep, polite bow "Kazekage-sama. I'm Uchiha Maya. The gratitude is yours, the honor, mine."

Gaara raised an eyebrow carefully. This was that little snot's niece? He'd expected something… different. More stuck up. "Nicely said. Nice to meet you as well. Your rank and age?"

"Age eighteen, rank, Jonin," Maya said.

"I might as well formally introduce myself," Temari shrugged. "I'm Nara Temari, wife of this lazy bum here, Nara Shikamaru. Age twenty five, rank, Jonin". She hadn't changed much, either, Naruto thought. She wore a different outfit, a short cotton kimono, but she looked nearly the same as ever. Gaara and Kankuro looked basically the same too- Kankuro with the same baggy jumpsuit and kitty-eared hat, though his kabuki paint had changed. And Gaara still wore the Kazekage robes. The darkness under his eyes was slightly lighter, since he was able to sleep without the Shukaku. But he still looked basically the same.

"Nice to meet you," Maya said.

"And these are our kids, Shikamari and Shikazu," Temari added.

"Hello," Maya said brightly to the kids. Shikamari beamed back in return, while her brother looked down and scuffed his shoe in the dirt.

"Anyways," Gaara said, slightly impatient "We have the reports from the guard towers at the borders and the towns that Sasuke might have passed by or through, and someone is going to have to go through them. A larger group would be preferable."

"We'll help when we don't have meetings," Temari said, volunteering herself and her husband.

"Except we need someone to watch the troublesome squirts if your team is out of commission," Shikamaru pointed out.

"I'll do it."

"Maya-chan, would you?"

"How about Maya-chan."

Maya, Kankuro and Naruto said simultaneously. Maya looked fairly surprised but grinned and said, "Okay, then."

"Alright then. The records are on the second floor. You can help us tomorrow, okay?" Temari said.

"That's cool, but would you send someone to take them off my hands so I can train for about an hour or so?" Maya asked.

"Sure. I'll do it," Naruto said.

"Thanks!" Maya said with a cheerful bob of her head.

Kankuro, Temari, and Naruto filed out of the room. Shikamaru hung back to tell his children, "Don't be troublesome," and then sauntered out the door.

As soon as they stepped into the hall, Temari asked "Do you think she's up for it?"

"Sure. She'll be fine," Naruto said. Temari and Shikamaru shared a significant look.

"You've obviously never had to baby sit for us," they said together.

"No, she'll be okay. She's fine as long as she has someone to be responsible for. The only scars today will be mental ones." Kankuro said.

Which would have been funny, but these were almost the exact same sentiments that he, Hinata, and Neji shared whenever leaving Kyoshi with a new babysitter.

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In living with Ashura-sensei, Maya had learned to be extremely responsible. She had to be. Because Ashura was many things, and one of the things he wasn't was responsible enough to care for a twelve year old. Maya could cook (not well, but in a edible fashion), clean, work a garden, host a drinking party, make tea, do basic to medium first aid, fix a roof, and generally take care of herself and others.

That being said, when she had no one to be responsible for, it was quickly discovered, someone had to be responsible for her. That being the reason that Naruto and Kankuro had volunteered her for babysitting.

Maya had spoken up in the first time because she thought she'd done as well as could be expected with Inobara. Shikazu was three. Inobara was three. Shikamari was a girl. Inobara was a girl. Piece of cake.

Later she would remember thinking this, and shortly after would be swearing creatively and loudly for ten minutes while her charges were out of earshot.

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Second chapter done! And I beat my self-imposed deadline by eight days! Wow. I really have no life. Thanks much to all reviewers, and to all those who put this on their favorites/alert.

Review!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 

Sasuke woke up and swore. There was light coming through the window. He'd slept through the end of the blizzard and now…

Well, for one thing, he had a hangover. Not a bad one, but his head hurt and his mouth tasted absolutely foul. He swore again.

There was a glass of water sitting by him, and he gulped it down. He fumbled in his pockets and, finding money, threw a wad down on the futon. Then he grabbed his clothes, pulled them on, and climbed out the window.

The snow crunched under his feet as he tried to locate some place to eat or buy some aspirin or something. As he walked through town, he noticed that everyone who was out all looked the same as the women from the night before. He must have been the first fresh blood in a- oh. He swore again. He didn't- did he? No, he thought, wracking his memory. He didn't.

He walked into the first pharmacy he saw and bought medicine and a few Onigiri. Then he started out. Three days, he thought, as he headed north.

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Naruto was ready to start banging his head on the desk. That's how much fun sorting through weeks worth of surveillance videos and town records was.

He sighed and rewound the tape again and watched the passerby. Even though his enthusiasm for finding Sasuke hadn't faded in the least, even after all these years, this was boring. This was worse than when Kyoshi threw up all over Tsunade's councilors. At least that could be considered funny.

He stopped the tape, played a little bit of it. Then fast forwarded and thought about Hinata. He could not wait to get back to see her again- and he felt bad for leaving her to deal with Kyoshi alone. He missed them. Maybe when they were back in Konoha with Sasuke, then-

Wait.

He paused the video. The image was grainy, but Sasuke's, indisputably.

"OI! I found something!" Naruto yelled, still staring at the screen, transfixed. Sakura appeared by his side.

She was looking at Sasuke's face with a deep aching longing, her face lit by the dim screen. He was right. She was definitely still in love. Poor Lee.

"It's only dated two days ago. That's from the Yuki/Kaze border, right?" Sakura said. "We're so close!"

"Yep. We're only a few days away from kicking his sorry ass all the way back to Konoha." Naruto agreed. He was thinking of his last encounter with Sasuke, seven years ago. Naruto had definitely changed, the question was, how much had Sasuke?

Naruto had gotten stronger, been accepted, had a family, and was close to fulfilling his dream. All Sasuke had been doing was running, hunted, all alone.

"We'll leave tomorrow morning." Naruto said. "We'll haul ass to Yuki, and then we'll kick his ass, and then we'll go back home"

"Yeah. He's in for a serious ass kicking" Sakura agreed.

Naruto resisted the urge to whistle. Sasuke didn't know what he was up against. He was going to have to go back to Konoha on a stretcher.

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Finally, peace and quiet. Maya flopped down, breathing hard. Now Naruto could handle the godforsaken little monsters.

First, Shikamari had gone to the kitchen to get some toast. This would have been fine, except she tried to get the toast out with a fork. Maya yanked her away at the last possible second, accidentally banging Shikamari's head on the corner of the counter. As Maya was applying a band aid to the cut on Shikamari's head and trying to figure out if Shikamari was concussed or not (with Shikazu dancing around them) the toaster burst into flames. The small fire was made worse by Shikamari using her fan on it. When asked why, the six year old replied "I was being a firefighter." After the fire was extinguished, Shikamari had to be bathed, as she was covered in ash.

Shikamari screamed her head off all the way to the bath tub, but once she was in, she stayed in. For two hours. During this time, Shikazu slipped away. Maya had no time to think about what he was doing to entertain himself until Deceptively Helpful Looking Chuunin version 2.0 pointed out that he'd colored all over the backs of Gaara's paperwork. All hands on deck were called to do damage control, though some paperwork had already been shipped out (This would later nearly cause a war that was only cleared up because of a few "Infiltration and Distraction" missions).

In the confusion, the siblings slipped away and wandered off. It took an hour to find them, an hour filled with thoughts such as:

_They got kidnapped_

_They're both dead _

_They're both in tiny pieces in some psycho's basement _

_Temari will bludgeon me to death with her fan_

_While I'm being bludgeoned to death, Shikamaru will strangle me _

_Gaara will take what is left of me and squish me _

_I'm going to end up in a jar labeled "Maya Jelly"_

_Naruto will revive me and kill me again for screwing up my mission _

and _I am headed for a very early and painful death. And then another one._

They were eventually located on the edge of town, in a gigantic clay pit. They were both completely covered in red clay, and their hair was plastered into odd shapes. They offered up three clay turtles in compensation for all her trouble. When asked what they were doing there, they both shrugged and said "I don't know"

So then they had to be bathed. Again. It took half an hour and three changes of water before they were anywhere near clean, and that's when Shikazu started screaming that he'd left his teddy bear in the clay pit and desperately needed it, right now, or he would DIE. So Maya had to go back to the edge of town, dig through three feet of clay before she found it, and then wash it.

After all three were clean and reunited, they were fed graham crackers and milk dosed liberally with a sedative. For some reason the sedative had the opposite effect on them, and (after causing mild chaos and bouncing off the walls for fifteen minutes) they ran away again.

Maya found them running around on the rim of a well. Neither of them managed to fall in, but Shikazu dropped his bear in the water. Maya, on the verge of screaming, lowered herself down into the well to slosh around for ten minutes until said bear was located. On the way back up the well, the rope holding her up snapped. She managed to climb up to the top to find that Shikazu was no longer interested in his bear, and instead wanted to go to the library.

At the library they were not content to sit and read, but amused themselves with screaming, tipping bookshelves over, and frightening the librarians. They finally found a book that they wanted to read, and Maya, wondering why they had not been kicked out, tarred and feathered, ect, started to read. They recited the entire book along with her. Thankfully, it appeared that everyone in Suna was used to their antics and merely threw Maya pitying looks.

Maya managed to bribe them with ice cream and a trip to the playground if they would just be good. At the ice cream shop, they both got messy again, and since Shikazu flat out refused to go into the girl's bathroom, and Maya did not trust him to clean his face by himself without causing some sort of major catastrophe, she was stuck carrying wet paper towels from the ladies room to wipe off his face and hands.

At the playground Shikamari caused a fight between two eight year olds, when they really should have known better than to trust her, after she popped their soccer ball. Then Shikazu fell off the monkey bars. Then the water fountain went haywire, and even though both siblings insisted they had nothing to do with it, they had extremely guilty looks on their faces.

Then they stole one of her kunai from her. They fought over it, getting both their hands completely mangled, and then Shikazu fell and came extremely close to being skewered on the knife. They both required serious bandaging by the end of it.

After they were cleaned up, they begged on their hands and knees for her to bake the clay turtles they made earlier. She agreed, which was rather stupid of her, but at that point she was far beyond reason, on the condition that they stayed inside while she fired the turtles. She started to use a steady stream of flame to bake them, and was almost done when there was a huge burst of wind that made the fire go out of control and knocked Maya over.

As soon as the ashes cleared, Maya saw Shikamari standing there with her mother's fan (How she managed to get a hold of it was anyone's guess). Shikamari didn't listen to Maya's scolding about she could have killed both of them, and dropped the fan to pick up the biggest of the clay turtles, which was still hot. It burned the girl's already mangled hands and she dropped and broke it.

So it was a very relieved Maya that handed over the hellions to Naruto that night so she could work in a bit of practice. She went through a few sets of the style she was personalizing, too exhausted to do anything more.

She came back to Shikamaru's and Temari's house, where Naruto said he would be, expecting to see fire, screaming masses, or the like. Nothing. Completely normal. Maybe Shikamaru or Temari was home. Surely their children could not be as… energetic as they were today, Temari would have killed them by now.

She opened the door, tentatively checking it for booby traps. Everything was quiet. This was simply not possible…

But there was Naruto, sitting on the couch, having just finished reading them a story, and Shikamari and Shikazu were completely quiet. Not a peep came from either of them. Shikamari was curled up, sucking on her thumb peacefully, and Shikazu was sprawled across the rest of the couch, grasping his bear tightly.

"How-?" Maya asked helplessly.

"Oh, it was easy. Kyoshi could give them a run for their money." Naruto grinned.

Maya opened her mouth, and then made a strangled noise. Then she shut it. She tried again. "Never. Remind me to never baby sit for you"

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Back in Konoha, Kyoshi was certainly causing his fair share of chaos. Hinata sighed as she heard another crash.

"Young master, that is a centuries old Hyuuga heirloom and it-"

Crash

Hinata ignored the destruction of priceless artifacts and dipped her brush into ink again. While Naruto was gone, she was stuck handling his share of the paperwork. She was currently approving the construction of a new wing to the academy.

"YOUNG MASTER PUT THAT DOWN AT ONCE!"

Hinata listened carefully, trying to decide if whatever Kyoshi's newest plaything was had the potential to be life threatening. After listening to additional admonitions from whichever Hyuuga had the misfortune to be stuck with him, she concluded that it was simply a vase. Someone was really going to have to learn to put these things out of reach.

Hinata fiddled with her brush, her paperwork halfway done. She pulled a blank piece of paper towards her, and then pushed it aside. She sat, considering it from the corner of her eye.

_I'm needed in Konoha._ She told herself again. _I can't go rushing off to Yuki. Naruto needs me here. Kin'nari and Kyoshi need me here. Neji needs me here to take care of Ino and Inobara. I can't afford to rush off and drop all my responsibilities. I definitely can't. And I'm not going to bother Naruto with a letter. Who knows who might intercept it? People can't know that Naruto is out of Konoha._

She eyed the blank piece of paper longingly. _NO_. She sighed and pulled another piece of paperwork towards her. She noticed that it had a miniature sun scrawled in the upper right hand corner. Knowing it, she turned the piece of paper over.

"Hinata, please contact me immediately. Information is badly needed. Send a reply with your summon, please" she read out loud. She put her head in her hands. Alright. Now there was no reason not to send a letter.

She pulled the blank sheet of paper towards her, and started to write.

"YOUNG MASTER, THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!"

Hinata smiled as she wrote a brief note to her husband.

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Damn, this was supposed to be longer… Ah well, The next chapter should be plenty long enough, so look forward to that.

I must admit that I feel bad for the Ebisu-esque Hyuuga who's in charge of Kyoshi.

Please review!


	4. Chapter 4

Hello there! Believe it or not I am not actually dead! I am really sorry for not updating frequently, but as school started, I got really busy, and I wasn't getting any alerts or pms from so I forgot about working on my stories. Oops. Turns out, funnily enough, that MY ALERTS WERE TURNED OFF. Which I did not do. Nor did I turn off my pms, but somehow that happened too. So I'm really sorry if I didn't reply to a review or you couldn't pm me to say "WTF bitch? Why aren't you posting?"

Anyway, I'm still busy, but I'll try to post much more often.

Thanks very very very much to Kyiri, who took me back even after all that and my stupid mistake of not sending the chapter into her last time. Oops.

Hope you enjoy!

_**Chapter 4**_

"How does this look?" Maya asked, having let down her hair and put on her forehead protector skewed, in a Kakashi-esque fashion, covering her sharingan. She had to keep her Byakugan activated as well to be able to see, but her bangs shaded her eyes and somewhat hid the veins.

"A little weird, still, but it'll work" Sakura smiled at Maya, who gave a shy grin back.

They had all agreed to travel incognito for the last leg of the trip to Yuki. Sakura had put her hair up under her headband, tied bandana style, and since they were about to enter the mountainous region and it would be getting very cold very quickly up there, was wearing different clothes over her normal ones.

Naruto had to be cajoled into using Oiroke no jutsu for travel, and was still bitching about it, though halfheartedly. There would be serious consequences if an enemy nation found out that Naruto was out of the village. They didn't have any time for attempted kidnappings, or worse, an attack against Konoha while some of their best ninja were out of the country (In addition to Naruto and Sakura in Suna, Shikamaru wouldn't be in Konoha again for awhile, Ino was pregnant, and Lee was on a mission to Kirigakure).

They'd decided that Maya's best bet was to disguise herself as a Hyuuga. Yuki no Kuni was pretty far from Oto, but they didn't need to be borrowing any trouble, and Maya traveling as Konoha's last Uchiha was bound to guarantee just that.

"You look good. Let's get going," Naruto, a.k.a "Sora", said.

"Yep, Mafuyuko-chan, looking good!" Sakura, "Harumi", gave Maya thumbs up.

Maya blushed despite herself. "Thanks." She looked around the barroom. "So it's just this last town we have to gather information in?"

"Yeah. Sa- Harumi's map gives us a pretty accurate description of his route, and we should be able to pick up on his trail," Naruto said.

"Let's get everything we can in two hours. We'll meet up then to get started off again" Sakura concluded.

The other two nodded. "Have fun, Sora-chan!" Sakura called happily to Naruto, as he walked out the door.

Sakura quickly surveyed the room and picked out the best people to investigate. Two Chunin from Suna were at the bar, and it was just a matter of getting them drunk enough to loosen their tongues. The waitress seemed a good start too.

She sighed and then caught one of the Suna shinobi's eye.

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"Look, kid, I know you know something about this guy," Maya said for the fourteenth time to the girl playing in the street.

"Nope." The girl looked away.

A vein throbbed in Maya's forehead. "Not only did you see this guy, you know something about him. I can tell."

"Sorry, I can't help you," the girl gave her a wicked smile. "I don't remember anything about him."

"So you did see him?" Maya asked.

The girl realized she'd trapped herself. "Ano…" she looked down.

"Well?" Maya coaxed.

It was then that something hit the kunoichi in the back of the head.

"Leave Umi-nee-chan alone!" a boy, maybe eight or nine, a couple of years younger than the girl, yelled.

"That was a rock!" Maya said, rubbing her head with a disbelieving look on her face. "Didn't your mom teach you not to throw rocks at people?"

"Let her go!" the boy yelled again, picking up another rock. Maya sighed and stood up, putting her hands over her head.

"Okay, I give," Maya said.

"Why do you want to know about that guy?" the girl asked fiercely.

"Because we're related, and I'm looking out for his welfare" Maya said.

The girl narrowed her eyes.

"Umi-chan, let's go," the boy said.

"You're related to him?"

"…Um… Yeah…"

"How closely?"

"What?"

"How closely? Could you legally marry him?" the girl demanded.

"Wha? Oh, EW! NO!" Maya stared at the girl as if she'd asked her if she would enjoy a "romantic" relationship with a dead dog.

"Okay, then." The girl said. "Can I call you Nee-chan?"

"Um… what?" Maya felt very confused.

"I want to marry that guy! He's so dreamy!" the girl squealed abruptly.

"…" Inside her head, Maya was screaming "SASUKE, YOU SICK--!! A TWELVE YEAR OLD?"

"Alright, I'll help you, Nee-chan."

"Do you know where he's headed? Where did you see him? Did you talk to him? Do you know anyone else who might have?" Maya rattled off a list of questions.

"Yuki no Kuni, he bought clothes from my uncle's store, and he headed north, at my uncles store and then at my mom's café, I talked to him for about ten minutes five days ago, and my big sister and my mother talked to him too," Umi said. "Hey, you're a ninja, is he one too?"

"He… yeah, he's a ninja." Maya faltered a little. "Can I talk to your mom?"

"Okay." Umi shrugged.

X

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"HA!" Maya said triumphantly. She had been wildly lucky in talking to Umi's mother. Not only did she now have a complete description of what he was wearing, and a drawing sketched by Umi's older sister of what he looked like now, but Umi's uncle had given her a glove Sasuke had dropped. That meant that Akeko could probably pick up Sasuke's scent.

She was headed back to the bar where she'd left "Harumi" and "Sora" just shy of two hours earlier. For the first time in days, she allowed herself to feel hopeful about this mission.

Sakura was still in the bar, chatting up two Suna shinobi. Maya's beaming face told her that she'd found something big. "Mafuyuko-chan!" she called.

"Harumi-onee-chan!" Maya called back, crossing the room quickly.

"Your little sister?" One of the Suna shinobi asked.

Sakura caught Maya's eye before saying, "Yeah. She is. Care for a seat, Mafuyuko-chan?"

"Sure, Onee-chan." Maya said, sitting next to the older Kunoichi. She couldn't quite believe that so few people outside Konoha knew the Hyuuga clan. One big white eye was kind of a tip-off. Then again, she could tell these guys were drunk, and it was pretty dark in the bar, even though it was the middle of the day.

"So, Mafuyuko-chan– I can call you 'Mafuyuko-chan', right? – What are you and your sister doing here? It's a pretty long way from Konoha," One of the Suna shinobi said. "The name's Maru, by the way."

"We're on a mission," Maya said coolly. They had all the information they needed, so she saw absolutely no reason to pretend politeness with a guy so drunk he wouldn't remember her pseudonym the next day.

"Let me buy you a drink," Maru said.

_Better men than you have tried, boyo_, Maya thought, and her throat tightened.

"Whoa, you're so tense, chill, Mafuyuko-chan," Maru said. "Oi! Sake over here!"

_Jesus, I'm not even legal, you ass_. Maya shivered. He was touching her hair. "You have such pretty black hair."

_Don't touch my hair. You don't even know me. I'm just some one-night stand to you._

"Here, have some sake," Maru said, encouraging her.

"No thanks, I don't drink." The smell of sake, which was obviously low quality (she had learned a little about drinking from Ashura-sensei), made her nose prickle, like she wanted to sneeze. The sensation crept up to her eyes and back into her throat. She coughed, trying to get rid of it.

"Aw, come on, Mafuyuko-chan," Maru wheedled. "Just a little. How much can one cup hurt you?"

Why was she even bothering with this guy? She had everything they needed, and the trail was just getting colder. Where was Naruto, anyway?

"No thanks," Maya said, firmly.

"Okay" Maru downed the cup. "So, as I was saying to your Onee-chan… I was with Taro here, and…" and he was off, ranting some story that Maya didn't have to follow, just smile and nod.

What the hell was taking Naruto?

Maru finished his inane story, and Maya gave a short, harsh laugh. _Get a life._

"Look, why don't we go have a private conversation… Just you and me," he said. Then he made the mistake of moving his hand lower, down to her ass.

She lost three seconds. One moment she could feel his hand snaking downwards, and then three seconds later Maru was on the ground, trying to stem a bloody, presumably broken, nose. Her knuckles were bruised.

"You bitch!" Maru said, shoving away Taro.

"Don't touch me, asshole." Maya glared at him.

"You broke by fuching dose!" he said thickly.

Sakura was looking at Maya in horror. Maya looked back at the elder Kunoichi. "I'm going out."

"Oh do your dot, bitch." Maru said.

"You don't want to fight me. A chuunin should never try to grope a Jonin, much less fight them." Maya said coldly.

"Mafuyuko! Stop it!" Sakura said.

"No," Maya said. "Fine, you want to fight, let's fight, I'll even let you heal yourself first. And then I'll teach you not to underestimate a Konoha Jonin." Maya slitted her eyes.

Taro helped his friend to his feet and fixed his nose. Maru looked at her with hatred.

"I'll teach you why we of the Sand don't respect your puny village," Maru said.

Maya let him give the first blow, a sharp punch across the face. Blood dribbled from the corner of her mouth.

"That'll be the last hit you land on me," Maya said. She promptly disappeared.

"What the-?" Maru turned to look behind himself, around, from side to side. "Where did-"

SLAM. A growling, angry Shiba Inu with red fur jumped on him, sending him skidding across the barroom floor. Akeko growled low and wolfishly.

Maya jumped down gracefully from the ceiling, where she'd gained time to summon the Inugami.

She crouched by her opponent. "Now you're at my mercy," She said simply.

"Think again, bitch!" Maru grinned. There was a poof of smoke, and Maya was left looking at a chair from the bar with an exploding tag attached.

Naruto walked in the door to see Maya pick up the chair and throw it deftly behind her, where Maru was trying to start a jutsu. He didn't get that chance, as the chair sent him flying upwards, and then exploded, leaving Maru unconscious and a hole in the roof.

Maya looked at her opponent with an empty expression on her face. Sakura, having watched this, strode briskly across the room and slapped Maya.

The room was silent, watching. Maya looked shocked. The medic nin said "Did you forget about the mission? What the hell was that? You just beat the shit out of a valuable source of information. You put the mission at risk," Sakura said.

Maya was quiet. "You're right, absolutely positively right, Harumi-chan," Maya said slowly. "Maybe you should send me back to Konoha. I did put the mission at risk. I've been suffering from depression recently, as well as violent mood swings. If our mission leader decides that it's the appropriate course of action, I'll start heading home right now." She did not blink as she stared at Sakura. "You can have these." She handed Sakura all the information she'd gathered on Sasuke.

What was she even doing on this mission? She didn't know Sasuke. Not for fourteen years. Hadn't even seen him. Better to leave it to Sakura and Naruto.

Sakura's eyes scanned the papers Maya handed her.

God, what were they doing? This whole mission was supposed to be about Sasuke, and he was managing to tear them apart. And he wasn't even there.

"We were looking for the wrong person," Sakura said, suddenly realizing the impact of Maya's information.

"Yeah." Maya said. "Look, you don't need me, I've given you all relevant information. I just want to go home."

"THAT'S BULL, MAYA!" Naruto yelled angrily. "IT'S YOUR DREAM TO BRING HIM BACK!"

"I'd just mess it up now," Maya said.

"Stop it, Mafuyuko! Now you're just being childish!" Sakura said.

Maya looked at Sakura and then stormed out of the bar. Or tried to. Akeko bit her hand, growling.

"LET GO, AKEKO!" Maya said. The dog uttered a low rumble.

"Let _go_, Akeko," Maya said. When the Inugami didn't, she ripped her hand out of his mouth, wincing. She ran out the door.

"DAMNIT!" Sakura said, running after the younger Kunoichi. Naruto stared after them, dumbstruck.

The dog gave him a patronizing look. "Aren't you going to go after her, 'Sora-chan'?" he said crisply in the voice of a teenager.

"Holy crap! You can talk!" Naruto exclaimed.

"I'm a summon. Of course I can talk," The Inugami said calmly, though with a note of scorn.

"Right."

The dog started loping outside the door, leaving Naruto to follow.

"Shouldn't we go faster?"

"No. Sakura-chan and Maya-chan have to work this problem out themselves. Especially if this mission is a success," Akeko said. "They're going to have to learn to live with each other. This is stuff us guys wouldn't understand."

"Right…"

Sakura kept sprinting after Maya. "MAYA!"

"Leave me alone!" Maya yelled behind her.

Sakura caught Maya's shoulder and spun her around. "Stop running away!"

"I'm not running away!"

"Oh, well then what is this?"

"Just bring him back by yourselves!"

Sakura slapped Maya again. "Maya, stop being stupid! What are you running away from?"

"I told you, I'm not running away!"

"Maya, we need you!" Sakura said. "Me and Naruto, we both asked him to come back. And he didn't. But you… maybe he'll come back if you ask him…"

How hard must it have been for her to admit that?

"…Okay," Maya said.

"Good. Let's go, then."

"That's it?" Maya looked confused.

"Yeah. You're a Konoha shinobi, like me, and I'm not the mission leader. You made a stupid mistake. But you kept the mission as your first priority." Sakura started walking back to the bar. "You're going to have to pay damages, though, which I hope you can afford."

"Uh… yeah…"

"Did you two work it out?" Akeko asked as they came back up the street, Maya trailing behind Sakura. He trotted up to her and licked her hand apologetically.

"Yeah."

"Sora-chan, You should look at the information Mafuyuko-chan gathered. It's really good." Sakura said. "How'd you get it?"

"Again with the stupid name…" Naruto moaned.

"People forget that children often see and hear what's supposed to be secret." Maya shrugged. "Let's go."

"Not so fast, 'Mafuyuko-chan.' Look up there." Akeko pointed with his muzzle at the sky, where a falcon was circling them. "I believe it's for 'Sora-chan'."

"Message for- OH MY GOD!" the falcon burst out laughing. "What the hell is wrong with you!"

"SHUT UP!" Naruto said.

"Yo, Tsubasa-chan!" Akeko yipped.

"Yo yourself." The bird said. "God, are you going to take your message or not?" she said snippily to Naruto. "You're almost as bad as _her_." The falcon said, hopping onto Naruto's arm. "How you ended up married to Hinata-san is beyond me. Why such a sweet, respectable girl would pick you…"

Naruto yanked the letter off its leg. The falcon flew up to a rooftop. "Loser."

"God, I _hate_ Hinata's summons!" Naruto said, chucking a rock at the bird, which disappeared in a poof of smoke before getting hit. He looked at the letter, eyes glowing. He hastily read it, grinning.

"Come on, let's go, you can walk and read at the same time, can't you?" Sakura said, pulling Maya and Naruto along by the hand.

Maya smiled, but said nothing.


End file.
